Zimmerman v. Village of Skokie

The “special duty” doctrine was first recognized by this court in Huey v. Town of Cicero, 41 Ill. 2d 361 (1968), as an exception to the common law “public duty” rule. The public duty rule is a long-standing precept which establishes that a governmental entity and its employees owe no duty of care to individual members of the general public to provide governmental services, such as police and fire protection. Huey, 41 Ill. 2d at 363. This rule of nonliability is grounded in the principle that the duty of the governmental entity to “preserve the well-being of the community is owed to the public…